Jean Nouvel supplanted by Norman Foster

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Tour Signal - Jean Nouvel

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A year ago, in the previous Marché international des professionnels de l'immobilier (MIPIM), the Etablissement Public d'aménagement de la Défense (EPAD) has announced the winner of its competition for the Tour Signal, a symbol of 50 years of business district of Paris: Jean Nouvel, together with the Spanish land Medea Metrovacesa. A year later, the Spanish investor is in big trouble will probably not conduct the operation successfully.

A competing project that had been discarded, the Russian Hermitage promoter, a subsidiary of Mirax, returns this year with significant changes, presented by Sir Norman Foster in 2009 Mipim in Cannes. Buildings, emerged from a base shaped like a crystal, will amount to 323 meters high (one meter lower than the Eiffel Tower) and will have French labels HQE (High Environmental Quality) and English Bream (Building Resarch Establishment's Environmental Method).
The two towers will consist of luxury apartments, offices, a five star hotel, a gourmet restaurant, a spa center and a panoramic bar and, in the basement, a place open to public with shops, recreation centers and exhibition space for contemporary art. The central square, as large as that of the Trocadero, allow all to cover part of existing street and create a pedestrian square, gently sloping down towards the Seine.
Emin Iskenderov, president and director of the Hermitage, chose to remain vague: according to him, all could reach $ 2.5 billion. Designers are also unclear on the specific equipment which will take place, the respective areas of offices and apartments as well as the timing of the yard. It is expected that work begin late 2010. delivery is scheduled in 2014.